Configuring Static Routes for Pools

Topic Last Modified: 2009-05-22

You configure static routes for each pool to specify the routes for all outbound connections from all servers in the pool. A static route directs traffic to a specific entity. For example, you can create a static route to handle messages with phone URIs. With such a static route, all inbound messages to the pool that contain a phone URI are sent to the address that is specified as the next hop computer in the static route. That next hop computer can be an Internet Protocol-public switched telephone network (IP-PSTN) gateway that routes the call so that the phone number associated with the phone URI receives the call.

For Enterprise Voice users, an outbound call made by the user is subject to the routing rules that are specified in the outbound routing application. If Enterprise Voice is not enabled for users, a static route is required to route the outbound call, and the request URI must match the route. Optionally, you can configure a static route for use by Enterprise Voice users, but the static route is only applied to those users if you disable the OutboundRouting application. For details about the OutboundRouting application, see Managing Front End Scripts.

Configuration of the static route includes the following:

  • Matching URI. This specifies a fixed uniform resource identifier (URI) that will use the static route for an outbound network connection.
  • Next hop. This specifies the computer that is the next hop in the route. To specify the computer, you specify the following:
    • Transport protocol. You can select either TCP to use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or TLS to use Transport Layer Security (TLS) as the protocol that is used to send messages to the next hop computer.
    • Either the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address, depending on the transport protocol. You can specify the FQDN of the next hop server only if you specify TLS as the transport protocol. You can specify the IP address of the next hop server only if you specify TCP as the transport protocol.
    • Port. This specifies the port on the next hop computer to which messages will be sent. For details about supported ports and protocols, see Ports and Protocols in the Planning and Architecture documentation.
    • Replace host in request URI. Select this option to specify that the host part of the request URI in the incoming message be replaced with the address of an IP-PSTN gateway.

You can create multiple static routes, but to avoid routing conflicts, static routes cannot include the same matching URI.

If you create a static route, but messages are not routed as you expect, ensure the static route is configured properly. You can edit an existing static route so that it better matches the incoming messages that you want to route using the static routing rules. If a message that you expect to use the static routing rules does not use it, confirm that the routing rule is not too restrictive regarding the domain name. Also confirm that the next hop computer can be reached by all the servers in the pool.

To configure a static route for outbound proxy requests or PSTN gateway calls

  1. Open the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 snap-in.

  2. In the console tree, expand the forest node, and then do one of the following:

    • For an Enterprise pool, expand Enterprise pools, right-click the pool, click Properties, and then click Front End Properties.
    • For a Standard Edition server, expand Standard Edition servers, right-click the pool, click Properties, and then click Front End Properties.
  3. Click the Routing tab.

  4. On the Routing tab, do the following:

    • To specify a new static route, click Add.
    • To change the configuration of an existing static route, click the static route, and then click Edit.
  5. In the Add Static Route dialog box or Edit Static Route dialog box, under Matching URI, do the following:

    • In Domain, type the domain name (or wildcard domain name) that an incoming network connection must use in order for the static route to be applied to the subsequent outbound connection.
    • If this is a phone URI, select the Phone URI check box.
  6. Under Next hop, do the following:

    • In the Transport box, click TCP to use Transport Control Protocol for routing connections to the next hop computer or click TLS to use the Transport Layer Security protocol.
    • If you are using TLS, type the FQDN of the computer that is defined as the next hop in FQDN.
    • If you are using TCP, type the IP address of the computer that is defined as the next hop in IP address.
    • In Port, type the port number of the next hop computer to which matching incoming network connections on the servers in the pool are to be routed.
    • To specify that the host part of the request URI in the incoming message be replaced with the address of an IP-PSTN gateway, select the Replace host in request URI check box.